Tombak Opinions Wanted

[Henk]

Originally Posted by Tim Simmons

Fascinating, can you etch with the more gentle fruit acids? I might be tempted to experiment on some tourist junk I have. Then who knows what next

I might even risk this as I got it very cheaply, if you could see it in the raw, you would see that the blade is full of pattern lines or what you call, pamor?

Tim,

Looks to me as a nice tombak and certainly not a tourist piece. Does it have a scabbard?

Of course you can clean it with more gentle fruit acids. Pineapple juice and coconut milk are frequently used to clean the blade. The pattern lines you see are the lines from the forging of the metal. The pamor is the contrast of the nickle and the iron made visible by the warangan. It depends how the nickle is twisted with the iron and how many times, but you would be surprised of the pamor patern coming up after treatment with the warangan. That the blade is full of pattern lines indicates that your tombak has pamor.